hrêri

Grammatical information: n.

Meaning: `lily, Lilium candidum' (h. Cer. 427, Hp., A. R., Thphr., Dsc.; λείριον ἄνθεμον Pi.), also `narciss' (Thphr., Dsc.).

Compounds: As 2. member im PN Ποδα-λείριος (Il.).

Derivatives: λείρινος `made of lilies' (Dsc., Gal.), also `lily-like' ( ἄνθος, Thphr. HP 3, 18, 11; not quite certain), λειρι-ώδης `lily-like' (Thphr.), - όεις `belonging to the lily' (Nic. Al. 406). - Also λειριόεις of the skin (N 830), of the voice or the song of the cicadas (Γ 152), of the song of the Muses (Hes. Th. 41, Q. S. 2, 418); λείριος of the voice (A. R., Orph.), also of the eyes (B. 17, 95), λειρός, n. pl. λειρά of the song of the cicadas (IG 14, 1934 f6, verse-inscr.).

Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]

Etymology: Like Lat. līlium the word comes from an eastern Mediterraneam language; a comparable deignation of the lily is found in Coptic, hrêri, hlêli (Egypt. ḥrr-t). Further several words for `flower', Hamit. ilili, alili, Alb. lule, Hitt. alil, alēl; s. W.-Hofmann s. līlium, Benveniste BSL 50, 43. - Also the poetic λειριόεις and the later attested, prob. backformations λείριος and λειρός as adjuncts of the skin and the voice can be understood as derivv. of λείριον ('lily-white, -soft'), s. Wærn Eranos 50, 19 f. Leumann Hom. Wörter 27 f. (who for Ποδα-λείριος reminds of the opposite Μελάμ-πους) calls the problem unsolvable as intermediate phases cannot be reconstructed. - Quite diff. Bechtel (s. Lex. s. λειριόεις), Fick 1, 538, Fraenkel Wb. 330: to λειρός (cod.- ώς) ὁ ἰσχνὸς καὶ ὠχρός H.; through dissimilation from *λειλός to Lith. leĩlas `thin, slender'.

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